


King and Lionheart

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Implied Relationships, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Sadstuck, Sober Gamzee Makara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 01:48:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2674361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's dead. Karkat was right there in the room, and he stood there and watched Eridan shoot her. His moirail is dead, and it's all his fault. A present for someone on deviantART.</p>
            </blockquote>





	King and Lionheart

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for polyatomic-irony on deviantART.  
> Homestuck, its characters, and Karkat's dialog at the beginning belong to Hussie  
> The writing belongs to me, and it is also on my deviantART and Fanfiction pages

Karkat couldn’t breathe. It felt like someone had wrapped their fingers around his throat, choking the breath and life out of him. His head spun, and he felt his blood pumper thud against his ribs.

There she laid, a gaping hole blasted in her midsection. Her eyes were still open. The fragments of the orb decorated the slowly spreading jade stain over her black shirt. Eridan’s cape swished against her body, before the zap of the transportalizer signified his departure.

He forced himself to move, stumbling over to her body, kneeling beside it. He shook her, once, then twice, then over and over again.

“Kanaya, are you okay?”

No response.

“Hey!”

Nothing.

“What has he done?!”

She isn’t answering.

“Kanaya? Please tell me that’s just grub sauce. Please just be grub sauce. Please just be grub sauce. Please just be grub sauce.”

It isn’t.

“Haha, okay, make-believe time is over!”

She won’t answer.

“Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god. Kanaya. Please, Kanaya. Wake up.”

She never will.

Okay. He has to pull it together. Has to see if the others are all right. Has to pretend his world didn’t just crash down around him.

He talked to her just a moment ago. She was going to hatch the orb in the meteor. She had smiled to herself and teased him about the Jade human, whom he was definitely beginning to be pale for her and certainly not waxing red. She was fine.

Now she’s gone. Her blood soaks through her shirt and skirt. Her eyes are closed. That must have been the only thing she had time to do before he...before he….

He shook her one last time, then got up. Sollux, to his relief, was still breathing, just unconscious. The idea of having to face Sollux dying again made his head spin, more than it already was. The last thing he wanted was more dead friends.

Feferi was cold, colder than she would have been if she lived. Her eyes were still wide open in shock and anger, her face contorted into an expression of rage. Karkat didn’t know how Eridan could have killed her. Wasn’t he flushed for her?

A beeping sound distracted him, and he walked over to Kanaya’s computer quickly, unable to shake the images from his eyes. He saw who it was, and typed various obscenities and questions into the chat box, and received only seven words in return.

_Don’t turn your back on the bodies._

Karkat turned around. They were all in the same positions as before. He spewed more curse words at...what had Terezi called him, Mr. Vanilla Milkshake, but there was no answer.

An idea struck Karkat. He went back over to Kanaya, bent over and kissed her lightly on the lips. His tears dripped onto her face, staining her cheeks red. In the back of his head, he knew it was pointless, but he clung to any shreds of hope he could gather.

Nothing happened. She remained as cold and still as the others.

“Fuck…” Karkat whispered, before going over to Sollux, picking his legs up, and dragging him out of the room. He forced himself to not look at Kanaya’s body on the way out.

_She wouldn’t want me to break down. She would want me to keep going._

***

Karkat swallowed over the large lump in his throat. He sent Equius to deal with Gamzee. It was all he could do. Sollux was still unconscious, even after Karkat had shoved his teeth back in after that embarrassing moment on the stairs. And who knew what happened to Terezi, though he had a guess that he did his best to push out of his mind.

Karkat slumped to the ground, holding his head in his hands. He shook. He kept seeing the bodies every time he shut his eyes. A dull honk sounded, and he jumped almost two feet in the air. He looked back and forth wildly, only to collapse back down. Sollux began to stir, mumbling through his broken teeth.

Karkat jumped up and ran over to Sollux, skidding on the floor in the process. He landed next to Sollux, frantically helping the troll up. The yellowblood cursed, before opening his blind eyes.

“KK? Is that you?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Karkat said, sighing in relief. Sollux blinked over empty sockets, then raised a hand to them, feeling along the edge.

“That feels weird as fuck.” he muttered. He turned his head toward Karkat-could he even say he ’looked’ at him anymore?-and asked, “What happened after Eridouche knocked me out?”

Karkat bit his lip. “He...killed Feferi….”

Sollux’s empty sockets widened. He clenched his fists tightly, and red and blue sparks lit up his fingers and empty eyes. “Where did the fucker go, I swear to Gog I’ll kill him-”

Karkat leapt to his feet, and just barely managed to say without screaming at Sollux, “You can’t go kill him, you bulgefucking idiot, you’ll die so fucking quickly you won’t have the chance to open your stupid protein chute to yell at him! Not only has Eridan gone off the fucking deep end, Gamzee’s lost his shit, Terezi is missing and probably clubbed to death in a corner somewhere, and my moirail is dead! He blasted her with his stupid science stick, and she’s lying back there with your dead matesprit! _They’re all fucking dead!_ ”

Sollux abruptly stopped sparking. “Kanaya’s dead?”

Karkat snapped, “Yes, she’s fucking dead! And I just stood there like a fucking idiot, just watching! I didn’t do anything! I could have saved her! I could have done _something_ and it’s my fucking fault she’s dead!”

By the end of the tirade, Karkat was shaking, light red tears dripping down his cheeks. Sollux opened his mouth, closed it, and finally placed a hand on Karkat’s shoulder.

“KK...I’m sorry.” he whispered.

Karkat looked up, and pushed the hand off him, angrily wiping away the tears. “Yeah, I’m sorry too. Come on, we have to get going unless you want Gamzee to club us to death.”

Karkat stood up, grabbed Sollux's arm, and began pulling him along. Sollux couldn’t really look at Karkat, but he could feel his tension in the tightness of his grip, and pretended not to hear the soft sobs every few minutes coming from his friend. They didn’t speak for awhile as they ran through the meteor.

***

They paused for a rest after a bit. Karkat opened his modus, only to swear again quietly, smacking his forehead. Sollux turned toward him, raising an eyebrow. 

“What now?”

“I somehow managed to lose my husktop.” Karkat growled, facepalming. “Can I borrow yours for a second? I need to check the memo.”

“Yeah sure, just don’t open anything. Wait...hang on...someone’s pestering me.…” Sollux pulled out his own husktopband, and flipping it open, casting a dull light in the room. “It’s TZ.”

Karkat sat up quickly. “She’s okay? Let me talk to her!”

“Gimme a sec, KK, I have to ask her something.”

Karkat waited for a good five minutes before Sollux suddenly cursed and almost threw his husktopband across the room. It made Karkat jump, and he was about to swear at Sollux until he saw the hopeless look on his face.

“She said something about smelling something brighter, than stopped answering.”

Karkat snarled and kicked the wall, then fell backwards and grabbed his foot. “Fucking _hell!_ ”

“Something tells me that won’t help.” Sollux pointed out.

Karkat snarled, “Did I ask for your fucking opin-wait, did you hear that?”

Honk.

Karkat gasped, and grabbed Sollux’s arm. Sollux scrambled to his feet, and they both ran as fast as they could manage while the honks got louder. As the halls blurred past them, the only sounds beside their heavy breathing and the honks, something fizzled. The lights went out, one after the other in quick succession, creating the uncomfortable feeling that the light was racing away from them.

“How the hell did that happen?” Sollux asked as they ran.

“Who knows and who cares?!” Karkat yelled, pulling his friend behind him. The darkness just kept on and on. Then, he felt the sickening feeling of Sollux’s arm slipping from his grasp.

“Fuck, Sollux?” Karkat gasped, spinning around, only to let out a scream as a honk sounded very close to where he was. Karkat screamed again and ran, bumping painfully into the walls several times as he did so. He ran and ran, until he saw the welcome sight of light through an open door.

Karkat ran into the room and slammed the door shut behind him. He sank down to the floor, gasping for breath, and buried his face in his hands. It took several deep breaths to calm his thudding blood pumper.

Karkat shook. How, how was it _possible_ that he had let go of Sollux? How much of a fuckup did he have to be, he let Kanaya and Feferi die, and now one of his closest friends’ blood was likely decorating Gamzee’s clubs. 

_Great fucking job, Vantas. You deserve the Leader-Of-The-Year award, complete with a fucking gold star on top._

Red tears began slipping from Karkat’s eyes. He made no move to stop them as they ran down his face, crusting and sticking to his cheeks. Every time he blinked, he saw Kanaya’s body, bleeding out on the floor of the computer lab. Every time he strained his ears to check for Gamzee, he imagined he heard Sollux screaming for help.

A sob slipped of his mouth. Karkat wrapped his arms around his knees, letting the pain he had been holding in out. It was his fault. All his fault.

Kanaya’s voice haunted his mind. He knew that if she was here, she’d have his back at least. And she would be the one to tell him, firmly, to calm down as he worked himself up. If this was normal, she would be doing her Kanaya voice and getting Eridan to shut up and Gamzee to stop honking. And, he would know if he needed advice, it would just take a look and a few words from her and he would be okay.

What was he supposed to do without her?

 _Are you listening to yourself, Vantas? Get the fuck up! You know what? Nobody can stop Gamzee but you! No one will take revenge for Kanaya’s death,_ _except you! Get your useless ass up and fix things! You’re the leader here!_

Karkat got up, wiped his eyes, pulled out his sickle, and reached for the door handle. As he stepped forward into the hallway, he heard a small crackle. He looked down at his feet in confusion, and saw a small piece of paper under his foot. He bent down and picked it up, spotting bits of purple liquid soaking through from the other side. Frowning, Karkat unfolded it.

SLOPPY M4KEOUTS, ON TH3 ROOF. NOW. H3 H3 H3.

Karkat stared at the note, blinked, then blinked again. That had to be Terezi, but now? After she informed him that Vriska had killed Tavros, went off to go hunt her, disappeared, reappeared, and disappeared again? Now, of all fucking times?

Wait, Terezi. Was on the roof, waiting for him and...wanting sloppy makeouts for some ancestor-forsaken reason.

The subject was definitely not appropriate at this point in time, but he knew where a living troll was located and that was all that mattered at this point.

He couldn't move fast enough.

***

Karkat rushed up the stairs, breathing heavily. Every time he took a step, he thought he heard a honk behind him; he almost fell several times because of looking behind himself. He had gotten lost halfway to the roof-damn this meteor for being so fucking big-and it took yet another painful memory of Kanaya and a shortcut she had shown him before he got there.

He lost count of the stairs, and the other doors, and the conspicuous hints of blood. Karkat kept his eyes on the top, where at least one ally was waiting. First on his to-do list was dealing with Gamzee and figuring out why he went apeshit, but after that that slimy fishbreath would pay. With blood, and lots of it.

After enough time that his skewed perception perceived as hours, but in reality he knew was only a few minutes, he reached the top. He pushed open the door, to see the extremely welcome silhouette of Terezi Pyrope, next to the edge of the building. Though...there was something, or someone, else beside her on the ground.

He took off running and collided with the tealblood. Quadrant problems be damned, he was just relieved to see her alive. Karkat hugged Terezi, who stiffened for a moment before hugging back. She cried softly, while she hugged him as tightly as he hugged her. When Karkat pulled away, he saw her gloves and cane were stained with cerulean blood.

“Vriska….” he whispered, glancing over at the body. Vriska’s husktop was still open, next to her face down corpse.

Terezi nodded. “She killed Tavros.”

Karkat bit his lip. At least that was one murder Gamzee or Eridan wasn’t responsible for. Though it didn’t make Karkat feel any better.

Terezi glanced over his shoulder, and seemed to tense. She let go of Karkat and turned around, brandishing her cane. Karkat turned around and froze. Gamzee was coming up behind them, which was why Terezi was ready to fight, but he was completely focused on the other troll also behind them.

She’s there. She’s there, she’s there, she’s there, guiding Sollux along with her, who knows how she found him. Her chainsaw was spattered with violet blood, and Eridan’s cape was wrapped around her midsection, but she’s here and she’s alive.

“I hope you were not too inconvenienced by my temporary absence.” Kanaya said calmly, her skin blazing white. Karkat pulled away from Terezi. He couldn’t look away from Kanaya, eyes wide and hands trembling.

“Karka-oof!” She was cut off by Karkat running into her and wrapping her in a tight hug, causing her to drop her chainsaw. He sobbed softly into her shirt, afraid that if he let go, for even a second, she would disappear again. His red tears soaked into her shirt.

“As your leader, I’m fucking ordering you to never do this again. Got it? It’s a fucking order.” he mumbled into her arms. She rubbed his back soothingly, whispering, “Don’t worry, Karkat….”

“I promise, I will never leave you again.”


End file.
